The Wahrmund Family: Mommy's Kind of Camping

The first excursion we planned as a family upon Jay's return was a three day camping trip out on the Olympic Peninsula. We tested out the towing abilities on Jay's truck by renting a 19 foot camper trailer from the Navy's MWR. I will never camp in a tent again. It was awesome having running water, toilet, shower, beds, kitchen and an escape from flying insects all while still having the ability to enjoy a campfire at night. Definitely my kind of camping.

Our first night was spent at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. I promised Scotty we would go back there so that Jay could take them in the scary tunnels and stairways in the old fort, Battery Kinzie, so we decided to make that our first stop and camp right near the beach.

One of the scary stairways that the boys and Jay explored in the fort

Sunset at Port Townsend

Our second night we packed up and headed all the way to the coast to what is considered the best campground in all of Washington State, at Kalaloch (pronounced CLAY-lock). The campgrounds are situated on a bluff that overlooks the ocean. Simply breathtaking.

We were not lucky enough to get an "ocean view" spot, as apparently you have to start reserving those in January if you want to camp in August. However, we were still fortunate to book a spot back in June that was close enough to still hear the ocean and that happened to have it's own personal access path carved out of the brush that lead us from our campsite to a little sitting area of our own overlooking the ocean. We snuck out there right as the sun was setting and didn't have to share the moment with anyone else, but I was a bit nervous because it was literally a cliff with a long drop off and it was a challenge to keep the boys from wanting to hang over the edge. OY!! Later that night, after the boys were asleep, Jay and I snuck back out there to watch the waves in the moonlight. I've never experienced something like that, it was really beautiful.

The look on my face is that of major concern that we were going to fall off that edge behind us!

Who needs glow sticks when you have hunter yellow stocking caps?

We sat and watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon; the boys got a kick out of it and of course Scotty had to explain to his brother that the sun "didn't really disappear, the earth is just rotating"

We would've stayed at Kalaloch a second night, but the campgroud was full even back in June when I was making the reservations, so we had to pack up and head out. We didn't have any plans or reservations for that night because frankly we weren't sure we'd last three nights, so we decided to just wing it. We stumbled upon a quaint campground at Bogachiel State Park near the Bogachiel River (and just outside of Forks, WA, for all you "Twi-hards").

There was a line of people taking pictures of this sign. Hard to believe people all over the world want to come to this little dot on the map called Forks.

Jay liked that campground because it was near the river and had planned on taking the boys fishing until he saw a group of people with fishing poles in hand head down to the spot he scouted out....ah well. It was a quiet place to spend our last night of camping. As we traveled back home, passing by Lake Cresent and Port Angeles, Jay and I reminisced about our time spent there while he was stationed aboard ACTIVE. We had a lot of good times and good memories.